Disrupting Lending
Joust is a digital service that empowers people to reverse-auction their loan, allowing lenders to battle in real-time to win the customer's business.
The challenge
Imagine lenders fighting to give you a better deal.
As someone who had been in financial services all his life, Mark Bevan believed that lenders had introduced too much complexity into the loans process. He passionately believed that mortgages could be easier to understand, and that there was a more straightforward way for consumers to secure a better deal. Fusion worked intensely with Mark and his team to transform a 'back of the menu' sketch into Joust - an intuitive, mobile-focused platform that was designed to deliver friction free experience to both consumers and lenders.
Deliverables
Strategy / Naming / Branding / User Testing / Website / Web App / Lending Consoles / SEM/SEO / Digital Marketing
THE INSIGHTS
A $2 billion opportunity.
Australia’s home loan market is fiercely competitive. Brokers now command the lion’s share of the customer base, vying with the Big Four ahead of hundreds of smaller lenders. $2 billion a year is spent by banks on broker commissions to prise customers away from their existing lender. Despite this, consumer apathy is the number one reason that better deals and lower rates aren’t being sought out by Aussies. These insights formed the foundation of the business model that Mark and the team shared with potential investors. There was clear opportunity to disrupt the way lenders and consumers connect - tipping it in favour of the customer’s wallet.
THE INVESTMENT
Fit for investment.
To fast-track an angel investment round, Fusion created collateral for Mark and the team to give a rock-solid pitch to investors and lenders. Our in-house expertise in digital for financial services (fintech for short) meant that we could help incubate the start-up while it reached its investment milestones. Using our access to industry data we aided the team’s financial modelling to form the market projections for a successful pilot campaign.
THE EXPERIENCE
Unfeaturing. The new black.
There’s nothing like witnessing the viability of an idea first-hand. To gauge consumer receptiveness to the concept, Fusion produced an interactive prototype and let people play with the live auction dashboard and on-boarding process. From this testing our user experience team slashed the scope of the first-phase product by 40%, saving the start-up precious time and funds. Never assume you know your customer. Ask. Observe.
THE NAME
Joust is a clear winner.
Fusion worked closely with the business founders to develop a clear brand positioning. This served as the foundation for the Fusion imagined brand name, Joust. Our core objectives were to create a name and brand identity that laterally expressed the ‘consumer hero’ business model and dynamic nature of the platform, while remaining distinctive, easy to recall and discoverable online in a very crowded market sector. No mean feat…
THE BRAND
Straight talking, sharp thinking.
From the outset Joust was a challenger brand, pushing lenders to reconsider loans from a consumer perspective, fighting for consumer transparency with every mortgage deal. The visual identity reflects this ethos - a logo that promises simplicity and speed, with a sliced-O as a unique representation of the competitive edge consumers, gain from using Joust. The tone of voice is no-fat, no-hidden nasties. The last thing consumers need is another brand making it more complex to get closer to financial freedom.
Creating standout in the fintech sector went beyond a memorable name.We carefully chose a brand colour palette that was ‘lender neutral' and unique to the brand too. Illustration style was paired with engaging photography to create a familiar personality across the user experience - we wanted Joust to challenge perceptions without sacrificing trust, the most important asset for a financial brand.
THE DEVELOPMENT
Simple and powerful.
The interactive prototype served as a springboard to design and build a friendly consumer-facing web application. But that’s barely half the development story. Behind the scenes is a powerful lender console providing real-time updates on activity from competing lenders and clarity on every step of a deal. In addition, the Joust team have a custom management dashboard to stay in touch with lenders. Consumers are always kept in the loop through every stage of the ‘Joust’ with push notifications in SMS or email format. To unify the experience, the responsive website that serves as the front door, shingle and castle for Joust was created by Fusion too - ensuring it integrated seamlessly with the consumer ‘jousting’ experience.
THE TECH
Sophisticated integrations.
To deliver a frictionless digital experience, Fusion made use of a wide variety of technologies such as VUE.js to power the Joust platform. We integrated 3rd party services for address authentication and credit-scoring. Feedback to the consumer and lender, including an instantaneous Joust leaderboard, is updated in real-time without the need for a web-browser refresh. Rock solid hosting of Joust in AWS cloud with high availability, security, and data sovereignty is provided by Haylix, Fusion’s hosting partner.
THE LAUNCH
Top listing on Google within weeks.
If you’re not top listing on the first page of Google, you’re playing a losing game. We worked on an intense program of SEO work which resulted in the Joust website being the top listing for the keyword ‘joust’ on Google within 6 weeks. Fusion’s team are also helping Joust acquire more customers with a highly targeted digital marketing program made up of conversion focused initiatives. Laser-sharp Google Adwords buying and display ad retargeting is supported by brand awareness content promoted through Facebook.
THE RESULTS
Joust goes national.
From the napkin scribble via a highly successful pilot in South Australia, Joust has now expanded across Australia.
1200+
loans jousted since launch*
$560m
in total deal flow since launch*
$30.4m
total savings for customers*
Our startup has benefited in countless ways from the skill, enterprise and energy of the Fusion team. Without them, we wouldn’t have a unique digital strategy based on their team’s deep understanding of financial services, a quality user experience or a robust platform that continues to impress consumers and lenders across Australia. Fusion also helped us stand out by creating a unique brand name that we absolutely love.
Mark Bevan, CEO JOUST
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